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Super Bowl XLVII

The San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens face off in Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 3, with kickoff at 6:30 p.m. ET. The Journal has a team of reporters sending dispatches on both teams and the scene around the game.

Cowboys Pay a Hefty Price for Tony Romo, Dez Bryant

With Monday’s announcement that Bryant would receive the Cowboys’ franchise tag, which will pay him $12.8 million in 2015, the Cowboys are dedicating $40.6 million combined to their dynamic duo, according to OverTheCap.com. That is nearly 30% of the $143.3 million salary cap for the 2015 season. It also means that Dallas is unlikely to re-sign last season’s NFL-leading rusher, DeMarco Murray, who is expected to hit free agency next week.

Last season, Romo led the NFL in passing and Bryant’s 16 receiving touchdowns also topped the league. Romo’s 125 passes to Bryant produced a passer rating of 125.8, nearly 40 points above average. That was the best of the highest-priced quarterback-receiver combinations with at least 100 attempted passes, edging out the Green Bay duo of Aaron Rodgers to Jordy Nelson ($22.9 million cap cost in 2015).

Some poor performing duos may soon become salary cap casualties. The Kansas City Chiefs, for example, are set to pay Alex Smith and Dwayne Bowe about $30 million even though they failed to hook up for a single touchdown last season. That is more money than the Pittsburgh Steelers will pay Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown, who produced 13 touchdowns along with a rating more than 30 points higher.

But the game’s biggest bargains are in Indianapolis, where the Colts are paying their highflying combo of Andrew Luck and T.Y. Hilton less than one-fifth of what Romo and Bryant will cost the Cowboys in 2015.

Patriots Edge Seahawks in Super Bowl Thriller

By Jonathan Clegg

In one of the most dramatic Super Bowl endings ever, the New England Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks, 28-24, in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday.

The Seahawks were poised to win, with the ball at the New England 1-yard line in the final minute. But instead of trying to run the ball in, Seattle tried to throw, and cornerback Malcolm Butler intercepted quarterback Russell Wilson to seal the game.

The win marks the Patriots’ fourth Super Bowl title, and their first since the 2004 season. New England was down 10 points early in the fourth quarter before coming back.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady tossed a 3-yard pass to Julian Edelman for the go-ahead touchdown just two seconds before the two-minute warning before Butler’s interception in the end zone with 20 seconds remaining.

In a game that required Brady to inch his team downfield against Seattle’s smothering defense with a steady barrage of quick, precise passes, the Patriots’ win was a triumph of patience and perseverance.

New England twice jumped into the lead during the first half but was pegged back each time. When Seattle roared into a 24-14 lead in the third quarter, it appeared the Seahawks would become the first team since New England in 2005 to repeat as Super Bowl champions.

But Brady led New England on a pair of clutch touchdown drives to retake the lead in the waning moments. Even then, it appeared that the Seahawks would respond. Thanks to a pair of downfield strikes by Russell Wilson, whose deep passes had troubled New England all night, the Seahawks advanced all the way to New England’s 1-yard line. But on second-and-goal, Seattle elected against handing the ball to running back Marshawn Lynch. Wilson directed a pass toward Ricardo Lockette, Butler undercut the route and the Patriots could finally exhale.

“I made a play to help my team win. I’ve worked so hard in practice and I just wanted to play so bad and help my team out,” Butler said. “I got out there and did exactly what I needed to do to help my team win.”

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll took the blame for Seattle’s final offensive play. ““That was my fault totally. Why don’t you just run it? That’s a really good thought.”

It ended with a familiar sight for football fans, as Brady embraced head coach Bill Belichick as blue-and-red confetti rained over the field. It was the fourth championship for the Patriots’ coach and quarterback, but the first since they won back-to-back titles in 2005.

With the win, Brady joined Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only four-time Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks in NFL history. He also tied Montana with a third most valuable player award.

“It was a lot of mental toughness our team has shown all year,” Brady said. “We never doubted ourselves. It was a great team win.”

What surely makes this the sweetest of those triumphs is that it looked as though the pair would be remembered as much for their chokes as their championships when they were headed for a third straight Super Bowl loss as the game entered the fourth quarter.

Brady had thrown a pair of costly interceptions and looked rattled by Seattle’s relentless pass rush. But his response cemented his reputation as one of the game’s great clutch players. Brady finished with 328 passing yards and four touchdown passes.

His fourth-quarter strikes to Danny Amendola and Edelman gave him 14 career touchdown passes in the Super Bowl, breaking Montana’s record of 12.

It was clear from the start that this game would be a cagey and closely fought affair. The first quarter was scoreless as the two offenses struggled to find any rhythm.

The first time the Patriots had the ball, Brady’s pass to Shane Vereen came up short, leading to a punt. Seattle punted the ball back after Lynch was stuffed on three straight runs. On New England’s next possession, Brady was intercepted on third-and-6 when he tried to force a pass to Edelman in the Seattle end zone. The Seahawks responded by going three-and-out again.

But both teams settled down and as the game entered the second quarter, it suddenly caught fire. New England led 7-0 when Brandon LaFell caught a laser from Brady at the goal line, but a 44-yard completion from Wilson to rookie Chris Matthews finally got Seattle’s offense rolling. Three plays later, Lynch ran in from 3 yards out to tie it at 7-7.

The game would unfold as an absorbing clash of styles, as New England’s short-passing attack attempted to pick holes in Seattle’s smothering defense, while Seattle’s deep passes found gaping holes in the Patriots’ secondary.

The Patriots went ahead again when Brady led the Patriots on an eight-play, 80-yard drive that was capped with a rainbow to Rob Gronkowski in the right corner of the end zone. But the Seahawks jabbed right back. Matthews, a little-known rookie who had never caught a pass before Sunday, snagged an 11-yard pass just two seconds before halftime, tying the game up at 14-14 and appearing to turn the game on its head.

“This is our fourth Super Bowl championship in the last 14 years. The first one we won I thought was pretty special because it happened at a unique time in our country. I never thought another trophy could feel as special but this one absolutely does,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft said after the game.

The Weirdest Play in Super Bowl History

By Kevin Clark

Patriots defensive back Malcolm Butler's interception of a pass intended for the Seahawks' Ricardo Lockette in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Getty Images

Historians will debate for ages whether the Seattle Seahawks’ interception on the goal line in Sunday’s Super Bowl was the worst play call of all time. This much is beyond debate, however: It was definitely one of the weirdest outcomes ever.

Interceptions at the 1-yard line simply don’t happen. When Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson threw it—on what was ultimately the last throw of the NFL season—he became the first player this year to throw one.

According to Stats LLC, the last such interception before Super Bowl XLIX occurred in December 2013. There are seldom more than three or four interceptions at the 1-yard line in a season. In other words, the probability of one at that moment was hardly high.

Perhaps what the Seahawks should be criticized for was the type of route they ran. The pass was a slant route to Ricardo Lockette in an area with heavy traffic. The slightest bump or deflection could mean disaster. Still, according to Pro Football Reference, there were 61 one-yard touchdown passes this season and no interceptions.

The far better option would have been to roll out Wilson and give him the option to run the ball in himself if there were no options to throw. But with the clock ticking, the Seahawks were nervous about wasting too much time on one play. That would have kept the Patriots’ defense off-guard and given the Seahawks a conservative out in case nothing developed.

Still, by far the likeliest outcomes when passing at the goal line are a touchdown or an incompletion, which would have simply stopped the clock. The Seahawks themselves scored on a 1-yard pass this season against the Kansas City Chiefs. What about the Indianapolis Colts’ Andrew Luck, who threw a 1-yard score with 36 seconds left to beat the Cleveland Browns in December of this season? There wasn’t much of an outcry there.

It is clear now that the Seahawks should have used bowling-ball running back Marshawn Lynch in that situation. It was the costliest decision in Super Bowl history. But it wasn’t necessarily the worst play—just the weirdest.

Suh Will Be a Free Agent

By Kevin Clark

Ndamukong Suh will become a free agent after the Detroit Lions decided not to put the franchise tag on the star defensive lineman.

Getty Images

The NFL free-agent class got deeper on Monday, as the Detroit Lions declined to use the franchise tag on defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh (pictured above), meaning the four-time Pro Bowl selection will become a free agent next week. One notable player who won’t hit the market is Dez Bryant (below), as the Dallas Cowboys did use the tag on their star receiver, which effectively means he will get a one-year, $12.8 million deal.

An exclusive franchise tag is a mechanism by which a team can keep a player whose contract is up by paying him the average of the top five salaries at his position, or 120% of the player’s previous salary, whichever amount is greater.

Monday’s deadline set the stage for a free-agency period that will have a handful of big names, a departure from previous years. Suh, who would have made almost $27 million had he been tagged, will become the biggest superstar on the open market in recent seasons. Bryant’s tagging means that Dallas running back DeMarco Murray, last season’s leading rusher, will hit the open market, too.

Elsewhere, the Green Bay Packers didn’t tag receiver Randall Cobb, who will join Denver Broncos tight end Julius Thomas and Philadelphia Eagles receiver Jeremy Maclin as the top offensive targets on the open market. On defense, New England Patriots defensive back Devin McCourty wasn’t tagged, meaning he will be a free agent. The Patriots instead tagged kicker Stephen Gostkowski.

The Kansas City Chiefs tagged pass rusher Justin Houston, who will make $13 million next season. Houston was the league’s most dominant pass rusher last season, accruing 22 sacks, a half-sack short of Michael Strahan’s NFL record. Since the market for pass rushers remains high, a long-term deal could get Houston a deal similar to what J.J. Watt got in 2014 from the Houston Texans (six years, $100 million).

Teams now have more money to spend as the league’s salary cap continues to rise. It was announced Monday that the cap will be $143 million this year, up $10 million from last year.

The Great Super Bowl Bed Check

After a summer of training, 16 grueling regular-season games and two tough playoff victories, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks have finally reached the Super Bowl.

Their reward has been a week of curfews. And, for some, abstinence.

In the run-up to Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIX, the Patriots and Seahawks have spent the week in luxurious hotels, but with two catches. The first is that every night until the big game, their coaches will arm themselves with flashlights and hotel master keys and then tiptoe into the players’ rooms to check that they’re in bed by curfew.

“It’s an important part of what we do,” said Patriots safeties coach Brian Flores.

The second rule: No visitors in players’ rooms or floors. Each team, in addition to bed-checking coaches, has its own security guards enforcing the policy. There are no exceptions, not even for especially significant others such as Gisele Bündchen, the supermodel wife of New England quarterback Tom Brady.

For some players, that means a week of chastity. To be clear, it isn’t a team policy, but rather a byproduct of the curfew and no-visitors rule.

“Abstain for a week,” said Kevin Williams, a 34-year-old Seahawks defensive tackle who is married with four children. “I mean, what choice do you have? I know what I do. Why would you not?”

National Football League coaches are notorious control freaks, known to diagram even where players should stand in an offensive huddle. Thus, in the days before the sport’s biggest game, they try to ensure their players are focused.

Plentiful are stories about players gone amok the week before the Super Bowl. The Cincinnati Bengals played, and lost, in 1989 without fullback Stanley Wilson, who was suspended for cocaine use. Atlanta Falcons safety Eugene Robinson was arrested on a charge of soliciting sex from a prostitute in 1999, but played and later had the charge wiped for agreeing to participate in an AIDS awareness program. The Oakland Raiders got routed in the 2003 Super Bowl in part because they missed starting center Barret Robbins, who went to Mexico the day before the game in a fit caused by alcoholism and bipolar disorder.

Through a spokesman, Robinson declined to comment. Attempts to reach Wilson and Robbins were unsuccessful.

Rich Gannon, the Raiders quarterback in 2003, said he also learned after the Super Bowl that teammates broke curfew that week to go out drinking, which explained why many got exhausted during pregame warm-ups. “If the guys couldn’t behave themselves that week, to go to the Super Bowl, many of us for the first time, they’ll never get it,” said Gannon, now a SiriusXM radio host. “What more safeguards can you have in place?”

In today’s NFL, players spend the night before a regular-season game, whether home or away, in a hotel so coaches can guarantee they’re sleeping rather than partying.

The Super Bowl is like that, only multiplied by seven. The Seahawks arrived in Phoenix on Sunday, the Patriots on Monday. That means extra work for New England and Seattle assistant coaches, who are in charge of the bed checks.

New England and Seattle players said their curfew varies by night, but it is typically 11 p.m. or midnight. Patriots assistant special teams coach Joe Judge said that at the appointed hour, he makes the rounds with the master key to the rooms, though most players, anticipating the bed check, prop their doors open with the security latch.

Many players are already asleep by curfew. Brady, for instance, has said he typically has an 8:30 p.m. bedtime.

“If they’re asleep, then you don’t wake them up with a big knock,” said Seahawks tight ends coach Pat McPherson. “Go in there with a flashlight, make sure there’s a body in the bed.”

Patriots and Seahawks players and coaches said they’ve never had problems with curfew, or with pranks that might come with leaving a door open.

None of the players complain. “You have the curfew for that reason, take care of distractions, keep everybody’s mind focused on the goal,” said Seattle center Lemuel Jeanpierre. “It’s a business trip.”

The rules do make it hard to get alone time with a significant other. The players get five or six hours of free time per night, between practice and curfew. The families of Patriots players are staying in a nearby hotel, while Seahawks families are lodging in the same resort as the players.

That means conjugal visits in the spouse’s room are possible. Unless they have children. “You have to have a little discipline,” said Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski. “I’m sure if we win, I’ll have plenty of time for extracurricular activities.”

The other problem: being a professional football player is exhausting. “Once all the work’s done, you’re kind of tired,” said Patriots safety Patrick Chung. “You’re like, ‘Babe, I’m just going to take a nap.’ She’s like, ‘Nope, you’re going to bring yourself here.’ ”

Chung has had dinner with his wife and spent time at her hotel. “You have enough time,” he said. “You just gotta do what you gotta do and make it back by curfew.”

Seattle Beats New England at Losing to Kansas City

The contenders in this year’s Super Bowl are so-well matched that for two weeks the “favored” mantle has swung back and forth between them.

Both No. 1 seeds with 12-4 regular-season records, the Seahawks and Patriots have stumped prognosticators trying to distinguish favorite from underdog. But here’s a factor that appears to have been overlooked: How’d the two teams fare against the Chiefs?

This will sound like a Kansas City ploy to broadcast the fact that only one team this year beat both New England and Seattle, and that was the Chiefs. But this isn’t a topic that Chiefs officials have any interest in discussing. They ignored emails seeking insight into how the Chiefs pulled off those victories. And following Sunday’s Pro Bowl here in Arizona, Chiefs players cornered in the locker room turned somber and looked at their feet when asked about the New England and Seattle victories.

“I mean, it’s frustrating,” said Dontari Poe, declining to state the obvious:

Yet there is potential forecasting value here. A little research shows it isn’t uncommon for both Super Bowl teams to share a loss to a common foe. It first happened in 1978, according to Stats LLC, when the Los Angeles Rams beat both the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Since then, it has happened 17 more times, although the Chiefs are only the fifth team to beat both eventual Super Bowl contenders and still fail to make the playoffs. The most recent before this season was the 2000 Washington Redskins, who beat both the New York Giants and eventual-champion Baltimore Ravens.

Potentially, that’s a large enough sample size to produce a pattern worth considering. Is margin of loss to their shared conqueror in any way predictive of Super Bowl outcome? As it turns out, in two of the 17 previous cases, the margin of loss was identical. In the 15 cases where it wasn’t, the Super Bowl teams with the larger margin of loss have a record of 4-11.

Granted, this insight doesn’t warrant mortgaging the house for a bet on Sunday’s game. And New England fans in particular are sure to hate this forecasting model, because while the Seahawks lost 24-20 to Kansas City on Nov. 16, the Patriots got hammered 41-14 by the Chiefs on Sept. 29. Both games took place at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, the Patriots loss on Monday night.

So there you have it: By the Chiefs metric, the Seahawks are favored Sunday.

If there are strategic takeaways from those games, one might be that Kansas City in both games came out aggressively and scored first, staking a 17-0 halftime lead in the New England game.

But the truer insight may be backward looking, for the KC losses help explain how the Patriots and Seahawks got to the Super Bowl. For both teams, the Kansas City loss represented the season nadir. The defeat dropped Seattle to 10-4, and a game behind the Arizona Cardinals in the battle for their division. Seattle hasn’t lost since, and head coach Pete Carroll has called the Chiefs loss the turning point of the season.

After the New England loss to Kansas City, speculation arose that quarterback Tom Brady’s career might be over. Like his Seattle counterpoint, head coach Bill Belichick called the Kansas City loss a turning point for his team.

One takeaway from all this might be that a loss to the Chiefs bodes well for a team’s postseason prospects. And conversely, beating Kansas City is a bad omen. After all, the 12-4 Denver Broncos beat Kansas City twice, and failed to win a postseason game.

Next Door to the Super Bowl, Yet So Far Away

By Matthew Futterman

Leonard Williams, a top defensive-end prospect out of USC, does drills at the Exos facility in Phoenix.

Exos

On the northern edge of this city, roughly 30 miles from where the Super Bowl will be played Sunday, another group of football players are at once extraordinarily close and extremely far from the pinnacle of their sport.

These are the two dozen NFL draft prospects who have signed on for two months of light torture at Exos, a training center formerly known as Athletes Performance, as they hone their bodies for the physical-assessment crucible known as the NFL combine. They have come to shave split-seconds off their 40-yard dash times, to find an additional few reps on the 225-pound bench press and to get an extra few inches on their broad and vertical jumps.

More than that, they have come to experience life as a professional athlete for the first time.

A month ago, they were preparing for bowl games, following practice routines put upon them by college coaches and adhering to curfews. Now, they are living in the kind of bland, temporary housing that road-warrior management consultants would recognize. They go through morning and afternoon strength and speed sessions, eat only the individually prepared meals and energy shakes Exos chefs prepare for them, and learn to adjust to life as a professional athlete.

So far, so good, according to Kevin White, a wide receiver out of West Virginia who has shot up draft boards in recent months. “I’m going to be playing the game I love and getting paid for it,” White said. “That’s crazy, isn’t it?”

Perhaps, but not nearly as crazy as the small empire that Exos founder Mark Verstegen has built around taking a holistic approach to helping elite athletes maximize their talents. What started in 1999 as a single training center in nearby Tempe, Ariz., is now a collection of seven training centers across the country, including one in Rochester, Minn., where Exos has a partnership with the Mayo Clinic. Five of the facilities train athletes for the combine. The company has clients as varied as the German national soccer team, the U.S. military and corporate customers.

The NFL prospects—or their agents—pay about $10,000 for the two-month pre-combine prep, money they hope to get back by surpassing expectations at the combine, which is in February in Indianapolis.

“We tell them, ‘You are responsible,” Verstegen said in an interview in his Exos office. “They have an opportunity, but it has to be intrinsically motivated, and we want to help them understand what that motivation is.”

Most prospects initially tell the Exos staff they simply want to get paid more. The next question is why? That often brings about answers like wanting a nice house. Again they are asked, why? Sometimes it’s a desire for financial security, or to make their families safe, until finally they land on a root motivation, like wanting to make people close to them proud. “If we can tap into that we can go after the short-term sacrifice for long-term gain,” Verstegen said.

Exos bases its training regimen on eight components that range from “pillar preparation,” which is essentially high-intensity stretching, to medicine-ball work and weight lifting. Regeneration is also a focus—players take a plunge in a 52-degree pool, get a midday nap and sleep 10 to 12 hours each night.

“It’s a little repetitive,” said Leonard Williams, a top defensive end out Southern California. But, he said, the targeted training and physical therapy has allowed him to bench-press without pain in his surgically repaired right shoulder. “I was ready for this.”

The players train in groups of eight to 10 with others who play similar positions to build an atmosphere of competition where each feels like he is fighting to outdo the guy next to him, just as they will be doing in NFL training camps come summer.

White, the West Virginia receiver, said that the biggest difference from college is the shift from breaking their bodies down to building them up, with an emphasis on rest and recovery. In college, the redundancy of dead lifts, heavy benching and running always left him tired, which he thought was a good thing. “I thought I always had to be going and going and going,” he said.

White, Williams and the rest of the prospects don’t have to look far to realize that what they are going through has become a basic part of life as a pro athlete. On Wednesday, Denver Broncos star receiver Demaryius Thomas was at Exos, already getting started on his off-season training. Another veteran wide receiver, Tiquan Underwood, was running routes on the turf field next to the gym, trying to regain a spot on an NFL roster.

Thomas told White that since he is a big receiver, defensive backs are going to press him at the line of scrimmage at first. He is going to have to prove to them he’s fast enough to beat them down the field so they back off. Underwood warned him that in the NFL he won’t ever face a bad cornerback like he did at times in college. Hit the film room and learn everyone’s tendencies, Underwood said.

White has never been to an NFL game and isn’t going to attend Sunday’s Super Bowl. He wants the first game he attends to be his debut as a player. But first, he has to work to make sure it happens.

Goodell’s Authority Is Once Again Rebuked

By Jeremy Gordon

Regardless of what color jersey Adrian Peterson is wearing, it seems clear he’ll play in the NFL next season: He’s too good, too young, and his transgressions—disciplining his 4-year old son with a switch—lack the same visual evidence that’s doomed some of his NFL colleagues to perpetual obscurity. On Thursday, he even had a judge side in his favor, ruling that the NFL exceeded its authority by suspending Peterson for all of last season.

Peterson’s suspension was only set to last until April 15, which would’ve theoretically given him an extra month-and-a-half to make his case why he should play for his Minnesota Vikings, with whom he’s still under contract, or any of the rumored teams eager to look at a 29-year old former MVP who just spent an entire season resting his legs. The ruling echoed the Ray Rice decision, in which the former Baltimore Raven’s indefinite suspension was overturned after it was similarly ruled that the NFL overstepped its authority. “This is a meaningful victory for the NFLPA, though, which has now successfully appealed two big suspensions on the grounds that Roger Goodell is making [stuff] up as he goes along,” writes Deadspin’s Tom Ley. But in a not-all-that-surprising move, the NFL has decided to challenge the judge’s ruling, so that Peterson might yet hang in the balance until the original April 15 date. It’s a crucial subtlety, considering his fraught relationship with the Vikings and the fact that NFL free agency starts within the month. Most teams will have done all their spending by the middle of April, which would leave him without his already limited options if he has to wait that long. “The NFL doesn’t like its power challenged, even if Judge David Doty’s order to overturn Peterson’s suspension read like a how-to manual on screwing up due process in player discipline,” writes Yahoo’s Frank Schwab. If the Vikings are forced to repair their relationship with Peterson, given the money they owe him, it could be the fraughtest team-player adventure since the Yankees and A-Rod.

It’s not difficult to see why the NFL would fuss so much. The Washington Post’s Mark Maske points out that Goodell’s authority has been rebuked by two judges, and that this might be a sign his influence is waning. “But some within the sport have held the view that when the league was under great public pressure in September while outrage over the Rice, Peterson and Greg Hardy cases grew, the NFL simply took the approach that it would do whatever was necessary to get those players off the field and worry about the legal consequences later,” he writes. “Rice, Peterson and Hardy have not played since. The ramifications continue to play out.” There’s another scenario that might be influenced by the Peterson and Rice cases: The rumor that’s floated around this week about a potentially incriminating video involving Dez Bryant which, as of now, has yet to surface. The video, and what’s supposedly on it, is so unconfirmed it would be irresponsible to speculate. And yet, you can imagine Goodell is keeping an eye on the situation while mulling his options—options that may be more complicated if a judge might immediately countermand them. He still has plenty of power, but now, the limits of that power are being rapidly defined. Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email Jeremy at jeremypaulgordon@gmail.com.

Judge Sides With Adrian Peterson Over Suspension

By Kevin Clark

Adrian Peterson in 2013.

Getty Images

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson may be one step closer to playing in the NFL again after a judge ruled against his suspension on Thursday. Peterson was banished after a child abuse charge in September and was suspended until at least April 15. The NFL said they have appealed the decision.

U.S. District Judge David Doty said the league exceeded its authority to punish Peterson and that arbitrator Harold Henderson “simply disregarded the law of the shop.” Peterson won’t be immediately reinstated—the matter will go back to the league.

The NFL said in a statement, “We believe strongly that Judge Doty’s order is incorrect and fundamentally at odds with well established legal precedent governing the district court’s role in reviewing arbitration decisions.”

The NFL Players Association, who had appealed Henderson’s ruling said in a statement that the ruling “is a victory for the rule of law, due process and fairness.” Peterson didn’t immediately comment.

Peterson was charged with a felony for allegedly hitting his son with a switch in September. In November, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of reckless assault. The judge in that case fined Peterson $4,000 and sentenced him to 80 hours of community service.

If Peterson is reinstated, his future with the Vikings is unclear. Minnesota team executives have said they want him back, but reports indicate he may want to play with another team.

John Idzik to Join Jacksonville Jaguars as Consultant

John Idzik on Dec. 21, 2014, eight days before he was fired by the Jets.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

John Idzik has found himself another job in the National Football League.

On Wednesday, the recently fired general manager of the Jets was hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars to be a consultant focusing on salary-cap issues, according to a person familiar with the deal.

The Jets gave Idzik his first general-manager job in 2013, hiring him away from a front-office position with the Seattle Seahawks. The Jets went 8-8 in his first season, then slipped to 4-12 in 2014. Fans became increasingly upset with Idzik’s draft choices and frugal spending on free agents, with some even buying roadside billboards and a flying advertisement calling for his ouster. They got their wish when Jets owner Woody Johnson fired Idzik and head coach Rex Ryan in December.

Known as a salary-cap specialist, Idzik did leave his successor, new Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan, with about $50 million in available salary-cap space.

ESPN first reported the news of his move to Jacksonville on Wednesday.

Darrelle Revis to Jets Fans: Don’t Blame Me for Leaving

By Stu Woo

New England Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis at Super Bowl media day on Tuesday.

Associated Press

Jets fans who watched the hated New England Patriots stomp all over the Indianapolis Colts last Sunday in the AFC championship game likely felt an extra twinge of pain when former Jet Darelle Revis intercepted an Andrew Luck pass on the way to a 45-7 win.

With the Patriots’ win, Revis was able to do what he never could as a Jet: play in the Super Bowl. Six years after the Jets used a first-round draft pick on Revis in 2007, general manager John Idzik, who has since been fired, traded him to Tampa Bay in 2013 after the two sides failed to negotiate a long-term extension. Revis then signed with the rival Patriots as a free agent in 2014.

During his appearance Tuesday at Super Bowl XLIX media day in Phoenix, Revis had a message for Jets fans: don’t blame me for leaving.

“It’s not really my fault,” he said. “I didn’t make the call. Management made the call at that time and they felt it was best to get rid of me. So that’s the situation. That’s how I look at it.”

Super Bowl Week Is Already Crazy

By Jason Gay

It has been a trying run-up to the Super Bowl already for New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who has been occupied by ‘Deflategate.’

Associated Press

Super Bowl XLIX is still days away, and already, it’s my favorite Super Bowl ever. How could it not be? These playoffs began with a merry skybox snuggle between Jerry Jones and Chris Christie—what did that clutch mean for America?—and now our nation is trapped amid the glorious entertainment of “Deflategate,” and all of its conspiracy-theorizing, scientific rumination and double-entendre hardy-har-har, as the NFL vows to probe the treatment and handling and shrinking of…OK, I’ll stop there.

I know a lot of people are sick of it already. Not me. It’s the best—the NFL being swallowed alive by national obsession and its own self-generated insanity.

On Saturday, we got another heaping spoonful of the surreal, when New England coach Bill Belichick returned to the podium in Foxborough and attempted to put a halt to the speculation party bus. Belichick prefers to dress for midwinter scallop fishing, but on this afternoon, he wore a handsome button-down collared shirt under a Patriots short-sleeved windbreaker. He was more than a half-hour late. He grimaced his usual grimace.

Usually a Belichick media appearance offers little more than monosyllabic grunts, but the coach had many words here, among them “bladders,” “stitching,” “pressure,” “gauge variance” and “rubdowns.” He said, with no shortage of pique, that he’d surrendered much of the prior week trying to comprehend why 11 of the 12 Patriots footballs seized by officials after the first half of the AFC title game versus Indianapolis were underinflated according to league standards. Since then, similar conditions had been replicated, experiments had been performed. Patriots camp had been turned into the set of “MythBusters.”

“I am embarrassed to talk about the amount of time that I have put into this relative to the other important challenge in front of us,” Belichick said, his low, grumbly voice not trying to disguise his irritation.

Still, Belichick maintained that the Patriots’ science lab had yielded some exculpatory findings. He claimed the process that the Patriots used to prepare game footballs—basically rubbing, scuffing and treating a football like, well, a football—resulted in raising the ball’s PSI (pounds per square inch) 1 pound. Taking the same football outdoors dropped the PSI approximately 1½ pounds, Belichick said. A retest in a controlled environment showed a decrease of approximately 1 pound. I am the son of a high-school physics teacher, and after a while, Belichick’s news conference began to feel like a long drive in the family Toyota circa 1987.

The main contention Belichick wanted to drive home: There had been no funny business by the Patriots.

But the coach emphasized that he wasn’t a scientist. That’s also when he said he wasn’t Mona Lisa Vito, the auto expert played by Marisa Tomei in the 1992 film “My Cousin Vinny.”

Let me restate for emphasis: Belichick made a “My Cousin Vinny” reference. I am struggling to think of a sports news conference—any news conference—that resembled this one. It was wonky and wandering and often defiant, the stance of a coach who felt buried by public opinion and league rivals and the shadows of his own reputation. What Belichick did, effectively, was to take the NFL’s internal investigation (the league is said to have interviewed dozens of people already) and crowdsource it to the public. Already the Deflategate conversation is migrating from locker-room whispers to Gay-Lussac’s law, named for the chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (and sadly, no relation).

Absent proof—and who knows?—the Deflategate debate will splinter into sides. There will always be stadiums full of Patriots skeptics, dubious since Spygate (which Belichick brusquely pooh-poohed Saturday as well); there will always be Belichick believers, obedient only to the rings; and there is everyone else, amused or fatigued at the sight of football losing its mind. This is not quite a scandal—nor is it a trifle—but it’s hilarious to watch Serious Football People get agitated about inexplicably leaking air. For Sunday night’s telecast, NBC would be well-served to hire an MIT physicist—and Encyclopedia Brown.

As for the Patriots, there are two dueling opinions: This distraction will make them underprepared and vulnerable, or it will convert them into an angry team that wants to strip the Lombardi Trophy from Roger Goodell’s paws and jam a triumphant needle into it.

Oh yes: It would be useful here to mention that there’s another team playing in this Super Bowl: the Seattle Seahawks, who, it should be noted, ate Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos for dinner and won the whole thing last year. (The Seahawks have a fan in—wait for it—Bill Nye the Science Guy, who went on “Good Morning America” and expressed doubt about Belichick’s Foxborough tests.)

This is always a crazy week for football. I would argue that this one might be crazier. But I am not a scientist, nor the Mona Lisa Vito of the football world. I am just telling you what I know.

The NFL Quarterbacks That Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston Resemble

By Michael Salfino

Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Associated Press

The two most recent Heisman Trophy winners battled Saturday at the NFL Scouting Combine to convince the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that they were worthy of the No. 1 overall draft pick. But their measurements and performance mostly reinforced what anyone watching football the past couple of years already knew—Marcus Mariota is the far better athlete at quarterback but Jameis Winston more than measures up for teams seeking a conventional pocket passer.

With his blistering 4.52-second 40-yard dash time and quickness running the shuttle, Mariota is most comparable to Seattle’s Russell Wilson, based on the combine performance of current NFL starting quarterbacks. In another measure of explosiveness—the combine’s vertical leap drill—Mariota exactly matched Andrew Luck.

In these same drills, Winston performed most like pocket passers Tom Brady and Joe Flacco. While his bigger frame may make Winston more suited to withstand NFL punishment, his hands are small for a quarterback—just 9 and 3/8 inches, which is a half-inch smaller than Mariota’s. This could affect Winston’s draft stock as many scouts believe larger hands help passers avoid fumbles and throw more accurately in bad weather.

Winston seems to have the slightly stronger arm, not too surprising considering he was a college pitcher. But perhaps their throwing ability is best measured by game statistics. In yards per pass attempt, Winston edged Mariota and topped the college performance of every NFL starter except one—Cam Newton, who won a Heisman Trophy with Auburn. Mariota, however, was far more careful, throwing nearly eight times as many touchdowns as picks while Winston was below average in the statistic (2.32). But Winston’s TD/INT rate is nearly identical to what Eli Manning posted before being drafted No. 1 overall 11 years ago on his way to two Super Bowl MVPs.

Bill Belichick Tries to Take the Air Out of ‘Deflategate’

By Kevin Clark

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick explains during a news conference at Gillette Stadium, on Saturday, about how game balls during last week’s AFC Championship could have lost air pressure.

Associated Press

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick played scientist and movie buff on Saturday, defending his team against allegations of deflating game balls and presenting evidence that he said supports the notion that the team followed the rules.

Belichick said the team conducted an internal review of how it treats footballs before a game. He reiterated what quarterback Tom Brady said this week: that the team inflates the game balls to the minimum amount required—12.5 pounds per square inch.

But, Belichick said, the internal study showed that once footballs are taken outside and adjust to the climate, they can deflate by 1.5 pounds per square inch. Belichick compared the variation of air pressure in a football to that of a car tire, as measured by tire-pressure light in a car going on and then off a short time later.

“We did everything as right as we can do it,” he said.

The NFL is investigating why the Patriots used footballs below the minimum air pressure in their AFC Championship win over the Indianapolis Colts. The Patriots play the Seattle Seahawks on Feb. 1 in the Super Bowl.

Belichick explained the science behind the air pressure changes, but also took an uncharacteristically humorous tone at some points in the hastily-arranged news conference. He said he was “no Mona Lisa Vito,” a reference to Marisa Tomei’s character who was knowledgeable about air pressures in automobile tires in the 1992 film “My Cousin Vinnie.”

During his news conference on Saturday, Belichick went on the offensive, denying rumors and arm-chair theories about the controversy that has come to be dubbed “deflategate,” such as the idea that the game balls were prepared in a heated room or a sauna, which would help deflate the balls. That rumor spread on the Internet this week but was swiftly rejected by Belichick.

The coach said he was embarrassed by the amount of time he has spent dealing with the controversy rather than preparing for the Super Bowl. After what seemed to be a science-heavy lecture, he said “This is the end of this subject for me for a long time.”

The NFL didn’t immediately comment but said on Friday that its investigation was continuing and that lawyer Ted Wells, who also investigated the Miami Dolphins’ bullying scandal for the league, would lead the effort.

Patriots Always Keep a Tight Grip on the Ball

By Michael Salfino

One of the many questions surrounding “Deflategate”—the controversy that has engulfed the New England Patriots—concerns what advantage an NFL team would gain from using a deflated football. Numerous players have said a softer ball is easier to grip, and a ball that’s easier to grip is harder to drop

New England coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady both denied ever purposely using footballs that were inflated below the NFL minimum. But on the basis of the allegations, the Count looked at the fumble rate of the Patriots compared with the rest of the league.

New England has had an uncanny ability to hold on to the football for quite some time. According to data compiled by Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis, the Patriots fumble far less than any other team that plays outdoors, where the elements can make the football harder to handle. Beginning in the 2010 season, Patriots players have fumbled (whether lost or recovered) once every 73 touches from scrimmage, which is 52% better than the league average. The next best team is the Ravens, who have fumbled once every 55 touches.

Additionally, according to Stats, LLC, the six players who have played extensively for the Patriots and other teams in this span all fumbled far less frequently wearing the New England uniform. Including recovered fumbles, Danny Amendola, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Danny Woodhead, Wes Welker, Brandon LaFell and LeGarrette Blount have lost the ball eight times in 1,482 touches for the Patriots since 2010, or once every 185.3 times. For their other teams, they fumbled 22 times in 1,701 touches (once every 77.3).

The Patriots didn’t return a request for comment.

Of course, Belichick is strict disciplinarian when it comes to holding on the football, frequently benching running backs who dare to put the ball on the ground. But other NFL head coaches aren’t exactly cavalier about the practice.

And it’s not only ball carriers who can potentially benefit. Quarterbacks are frequent fumblers when sacked. But while the average passer fumbles once every 7.3 sacks, Brady’s rate is once every 9.1, an improvement of nearly 25%.

Get Ready for the Jets to Blitz—A Lot

New Jets defensive coordinator Kacy Rodgers with Dolphins defensive end Dion Jordan, left, and defensive end Terrence Fede in December 2014.

Zuma Press

Jets fans expecting a more conservative brand of football after the departure of Rex Ryan may be in for a shock.

New head coach Todd Bowles, who was the defensive coordinator in Arizona the past two seasons, has actually been the most aggressive signal-caller in the game since 2013. His former team blitzed on a league-leading 43.5% of pass plays in those two years, while Ryan’s Jets ranked 11th in blitz rate at 31.7%.

On Friday, Bowles hired Kacy Rodgers as his new defensive coordinator. Rodgers comes over from Dolphins, who also have blitzed more frequently (34.5% of pass plays) than the Jets.

Rodgers, who was the Dolphins’ defensive-line coach, has been a part of one of the league’s more effective blitzing defenses, too. Since 2013, quarterbacks have posted a passer rating of 75.4 against Dolphins blitzes, the fourth lowest rate in the NFL. Compare that to the 107.1 passer rating that quarterbacks compiled versus Jets’ blitzes and the 82.3 against Bowles’s Cardinals. Note that sacks are not factored into these ratings, though those are uncommon even when teams send the house.

The Jets’ defensive line is good at generating pressure, perhaps decreasing the need for blitzing. The defensive ends in the team’s 3-4 defense this past season, Sheldon Richardson and Muhammad Wilkerson, were the third and 13th ranked pass rushers at the position, respectively, according to ProFootballFocus. Richardson’s nine sacks trailed only Houston’s J.J. Watt (21) among 3-4 ends.

If Bowles and Rodgers want to continue their blitzing ways, the Jets must find defensive backs more capable of holding up in man coverage either in free agency, the draft or both. The good news is that this is old hat for new general manager Mike Maccagnan, who came to the Jets after leading the college scouting department of the Houston Texans, the second-most blitz-heavy team since 2013 (40.7% of all pass plays).

Raiders, Chargers Propose Shared Football Stadium Near L.A.

By Tamara Audi, Kevin Clark

A proposed National Football League stadium in which both the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers would play, located in Carson, Calif.

Manica Architecture

LOS ANGELES—For two decades, this football-deprived city has been trying to win back the love of the National Football League. Now, L.A. has an abundance of suitors—though how serious they are is unclear.

The San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders Friday announced a proposal to build a shared football stadium near Los Angeles, making it the fourth plan to bring the NFL back to the area. The $1.7 billion stadium would be privately funded, according to its backers.

The latest proposal, first reported in the Los Angeles Times, calls for a stadium in Carson, a small city less than 20 miles south of L.A.

Last month, St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke and a real-estate investment firm announced a partnership to build a stadium in Inglewood, just southwest of downtown L.A. Meanwhile, there are two other competing proposals for stadiums in the area; one in downtown L.A., and another in City of Industry.

The new proposal from the Chargers and Raiders comes after years of frustrated attempts from both teams to win new stadiums in their home cities. The Chargers and the Raiders—rivals on the field—released a joint statement saying they have pursued stadiums in their current cities “for many years, so far unsuccessfully.”

“We remain committed to continuing to work in our home markets throughout 2015 to try to find publicly acceptable solutions to the long-term stadium issue,” the statement said.

Mark Fabiani, the Chargers Special Counsel, said on the team’s website that a final decision on potential relocation will likely be made by the end of the 2015 season.

The NFL would have to approve such a move. The New York Jets and New York Giants share MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, though unlike those teams, the Chargers and Raiders are both in the same division.

An NFL spokesman said the league is “in regular contact with all involved clubs. All clubs have been meeting their responsibilities to keep us informed.”

Carson2gether, a coalition of team officials, business and labor leaders, posted an animated video of an early rendering of the proposed venue on YouTube. It shows a sleek, open-air stadium surrounded by endless fields of parking. “A new stadium for all of Southern California,” the video says.

The coalition is spearheading a ballot measure to allow a stadium to be built on a 168-acre site in Carson. The franchises have a deal in place to purchase the site if they win approvals from the city and the NFL, according to a spokesman for the coalition. Revenues would be used to pay for the costs of building the stadium, but no taxpayer funds would be used, according to the coalition.

The proposal caught San Diego officials by surprise and sparked the ire of the San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who accused the Chargers of “not being up front” with the city and fans in a news conference Friday.

“The way you get things done is to be up front and open and honest, and when San Diegans are waking up to see the Chargers are working with the Raiders… That’s no way to get things done,” Mr. Faulconer said. “That’s not being up front, that’s not how you do business.”

But it also got the city moving faster on its own plans for a new stadium there. Mr. Faulconer said the city will “speed up that timeline” for its own plans for a new stadium. Mr. Faulconer, elected last year, appointed an advisory board to recommend a location for a new stadium.

On the Chargers website, Mr. Fabiani wrote that 25% of the team’s season ticket holders are from Los Angeles and Orange Counties. “We are in many ways Southern California’s team,” he wrote. He also said the Rams’ owner’s announcement last month to pursue a stadium in Inglewood “have forced the hand of the Chargers” in order to “protect the franchise’s future economic viability.”

In northern California, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said the city is in “full negotiation mode” with the Raiders, “which means they are publicly exploring all of their options as part of the process.”

Ms. Schaaf said she is working to “explore ways to privately fund a new home” for the Raiders in Oakland. “I know how important it is to fans that we work to keep our Raiders here at home where they belong.”

Coughlin, Giants Have Eyes on Prospects at NFL Scouting Combine

By Stu Woo

New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin, in Indianapolis on Thursday for the NFL Scouting Combine, will look to stock his team with a new crop of talent.

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS—Head coaches tend to get fired after a 6-10 season, and the Giants’ Tom Coughlin acknowledged that Thursday when he stepped to the podium at the NFL Scouting Combine and said, “Here we are again—thank God,” before cracking a rare smile.

Coughlin can grin. He not only has his job but also a team that is much better than last year’s record suggested. The Giants played much of 2014 without star receiver Victor Cruz and three of its best cornerbacks because of season-ending injuries, while the team’s sensational rookie receiver, Odell Beckham Jr., missed a month with a hamstring issue.

At the combine, Coughlin and general manager Jerry Reese can scout the college players that might propel them to the playoffs next season, even in a NFC East division that saw both Dallas and Philadelphia win at least 10 games last year.

The Giants look mostly set on offense, which finished 10th in yards gained last season. There are no easily available upgrades to quarterback Eli Manning, to the running-back tandem of Rashad Jennings and Andre Williams, or to the receiving duo of Beckham and Cruz, who Coughlin said was recovering as expected from his knee injury.

The Giants also have two good cornerbacks in Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Prince Amukamara.

There are still areas the Giants can improve, however, and these are the three positions the team should focus on this off-season:

DEFENSIVE LINE: It’s possible that both 2014 starting defensive ends could be gone. Not only is the veteran Mathias Kiwanuka expensive, but he will also be 32 years old and ranked last season as the third-worst defensive end in a four-man defensive line, according to Pro Football Focus, which grades every snap in which a player is involved. Even Coughlin declined to comment on whether Kiwanuka would return, saying he “wouldn’t answer that right now.”

The coach was much more enthusiastic about Jason Pierre-Paul, who just turned 26 and had a stellar season, tallying 12.5 sacks. “The goal is for him to be a Giant and play as a Giant forever, and retire as a Giant,” Coughlin said.

The Giants have a couple options with Pierre-Paul, who is scheduled to become a free agent. Every NFL team can use what’s called a franchise tag on one player, which gives the player a one-year contract at a lucrative salary. For a defensive end last year, the franchise-tag salary was $13 million. As Coughlin implied, the Giants could also try to sign Pierre-Paul to a long-term contract.

Even if Pierre-Paul returns, the Giants need two more good linemen to complement him and defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins, one of the league’s best last year. Possible draft targets include Missouri’s Shane Ray and Oregon’s Arik Armstead.

OFFENSIVE LINE: Left tackle Will Beatty played superbly last year, as did guard and tackle Geoff Schwartz when he was healthy, which he wasn’t almost all year.

The other three guys on the line weren’t great. The Giants ranked 23rd in rushing yards in 2014, though they were better at pass blocking, ranking 11th, according to Pro Football Focus.

The Giants appear committed to continue playing youngsters Weston Richburg and Justin Pugh alongside Beatty and Schwartz, leaving one more starting position up for grabs. Should the Giants draft a lineman, he could be Iowa’s Brandon Scherff, who was scheduled to meet with the Giants Thursday night. Other options include Miami’s Ereck Flowers or LSU’s La’el Collins.

SAFETY: Coughlin on Wednesday raved about the play and leadership of Antrel Rolle, the two-time All-Pro safety who is about to become a free agent. Coughlin wants Rolle back, but the safety just turned 32 years old. There’s another problem: “Obviously we do have financial restrictions involved,” Coughlin said.

Should the Giants seek a cheaper and younger safety, they could consider Alabama’s Landon Collins.

For Larry Fitzgerald, Quarterback Play Is Not in the Cards

By Andrew Beaton

Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald has played with 13 different starting quarterbacks during his 11-year career.

Associated Press

With a new deal this week, the Cardinals gave star receiver Larry Fitzgerald 22 million reasons to stay in Arizona for the next two seasons. But since Fitzgerald entered the NFL in 2004, the Cardinals have also given him 13 reasons to leave: the number of different starting quarterbacks the team has had during his career. Only four teams have had more starting quarterbacks during this span, according to Stats LLC.

Fitzgerald has racked up Hall of Fame numbers in his 11-year career (909 catches, 12,151 yards) despite mediocre quarterback play. As a rookie, he survived the Josh McCown-Shaun King-John Navarre era and in 2011 he hauled in 1,411 yards receiving yards from the likes of John Skelton and Kevin Kolb.

There has been only two seasons—2008 with Kurt Warner and 2013 with Carson Palmer—that the Cardinals had one quarterback start all 16 regular-season games. This past season, with three different starting quarterbacks—Palmer, Drew Stanton and Ryan Lindley—Fitzgerald caught 63 passes for 784 yards, his lowest total since his rookie season.

Fitzgerald’s quarterbacks have a combined 78.8 passer rating in games he has played in. Among Hall of Fame wide receivers who began playing in 1980 or later, only one—Art Monk—dealt with shakier quarterback play.

Monk, who played 14 of his 16 seasons with Washington, won three titles, but three different starting quarterbacks—Joe Theismann, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien—started those Super Bowls.

Other legendary receivers have dealt with more stable situations under center. Jerry Rice, whose quarterbacks had a 92.0 passer rating, spent most of his career with two Hall of Famers: Joe Montana and Steve Young.

The only thing scarier for Arizona than their annual quarterback woes, however, might be imagining how the situation would look if Fitzgerald weren’t around. In 2014, Cardinals quarterbacks combined to have an 81.8 passer rating but a 93.9 rating when targeting Fitzgerald, according to ProFootballFocus.com.

Maccagnan and the Jets Scour NFL Combine for Talent

By Stu Woo

INDIANAPOLIS—Snow flurried in the 10-degree chill outside the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Wednesday, but the Jets’ new regime gave the impression that springtime was around the corner for the hard-luck franchise.

General manager Mike Maccagnan and head coach Todd Bowles conceded they were still trying to settle into the jobs they started just a month ago, but were eager to begin rebuilding a team that went 4-12 last year and hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2010-11 season.

The Jets may not be in the most enviable position, but they do have something that other NFL teams should envy: money. The Jets have close to $50 million in salary-cap space, according to the contract-tracker Spotrac.com, and they need to use it to meet spending minimums set by the league and the players’ union.

Some of that money will go toward free agents. Maccagnan said Wednesday that the team will pursue big-ticket players as well as cheaper ones. A smaller portion will go toward drafting college players, whom the Jets will evaluate this week at the combine.

The Jets don’t need help on the defensive line, which boasts three star players 26 years old or younger. They are also set at running back despite declining the option on disgruntled former star Chris Johnson’s contract, with workhorse Chris Ivory backed up by Bilal Powell.

Where they do need help is— everywhere else. The roster may have too many holes to fill in 2015 alone, but with their ample salary-cap space, the Jets can set themselves up for an entertaining 2016 season.

Here are the three positions on which the team should be focusing here in Indianapolis:

CORNERBACK: Asked Wednesday where the Jets needed to improve, Maccagnan mentioned only one position by name.

“Cornerback is a position we’re probably going to address, either in the draft or the pro free agency,” he said.

The Jets ranked 19th in passing yards allowed last season, and it probably would have been even worse without former head coach Rex Ryan’s creativity; by the end of the season, the team was starting career backup Darrin Walls and undrafted rookie Marcus Williams at cornerback.

The Jets were unlucky when 2013 first-round draft pick Dee Milliner, was forced to miss most of the season with knee and Achilles’ injuries, and 2014 third-round selection Dexter McDougle missed the whole thing with a torn knee ligament. Maccagnan and Bowles said it was unclear whether Milliner would be healthy by training camp.

Meanwhile, two big-name former Jets could be available in free agency: All-Pro Darrelle Revis, should the Patriots decide to cut him, and Antonio Cromartie, who played with the Cardinals last year. But Revis will turn 30 in July and Cromartie will be 31 in April, and it makes little sense for a rebuilding team to sign either of them. The Jets could look at younger free agents, such as Seattle’s Byron Maxwell.

Unless the Jets trade down from their sixth overall pick in the draft, they probably won’t take a cornerback in the first round. Look for them to grab one between the second and middle rounds instead.

QUARTERBACK: Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith said Wednesday that he would be comfortable selecting Florida State star Jameis Winston with the draft’s first pick. After that, the teams that currently hold the second through fifth picks appear content with their quarterbacks, so Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota might be available to the Jets with the sixth selection.

Maccagnan said the Jets have scheduled interviews with both Winston and Mariota. He declined to comment on Winston’s off-field issues, saying it was too early in the process to do so, and that the Jets were still evaluating whether Mariota’s staggering statistics were inflated by Oregon’s go-go offense.

The Jets remained noncommittal on Geno Smith, their starter of the past two years. Bowles said Wednesday what every Jets fan already knows: Smith has a terrific arm, but needs to limit the turnovers. In two seasons, Smith has completed 58% of his pass attempts, thrown for 25 touchdowns and 34 interceptions. He has also lost seven fumbles.

The Jets are also looking at veteran quarterbacks. Maccagnan said the team met Wednesday with Josh McCown, the 35-year-old journeyman who played well with Chicago in 2013 but struggled with Tampa Bay last season.

LINEBACKER: The Jets’ four starting linebackers in 2014 were undistinguished. According to Pro Football Focus, which grades players on every snap, outside linebackers Quinton Coples and Calvin Pace were among the league’s worst. At inside linebacker, Demario Davis was above average, while defensive leader David Harris was mediocre.

Coples, Davis and the 34-year-old Pace will be back, while the 31-year-old Harris is a free agent. The Jets would be wise to try someone younger in the position, but they appear to be courting Harris to return.